Discussions at the 12th edition of the PLA® Conference Europe 2025

The PLA® Conference is pleased to announce its 12th European edition, which will take place on 18 and 19 March 2025 in the city of Milan, Italy, at the Hotel NH Milano 2.

The conference is the place to be for anyone thinking of implementing, consolidating, integrating, simplifying digital processes in their labs, and improving data-driven decisions. Data, Processes, People, Technology, and Compliance are the backbone of the program of each edition.

A two-day event that includes:

– Plenary talks and panel discussions

from industry leaders who share their visions and use cases, explain their strategies for tackling a specific project and share their lessons learnt along the way.

– Product deep dive and Interactive  workshops

where our sponsors present their latest solutions and their subject matter experts share their experience and knowledge on specific topics.

– Networking at the Exhibition Hall

a true showcase with high-quality networking opportunities to gather in-depth information with colleagues, speakers, and vendors.

A unique opportunity only possible thanks to  the support of the PLA® partners. More than 60 solution and service providers sponsoring all editions around the globe since 2012.

The project was launched in Europe in 2012 with the aim of creating a platform for discussion that ensures a collaborative atmosphere between suppliers and visitors.

The PLA® conference program is intended for managers and executives from R&D, QC, OpEx, IT and QA departments in the bio/pharma, cosmetics, biotechnology, service labs, chemicals, consumer goods, food and beverage sectors.

In 2023, a long-standing project that had unfortunately been delayed by the pandemic was finally realised. The PLA® conferences are now present in Europe, India, and the United States. The 2023 editions proved to be strong and robust. The programs addressed the challenges of successfully implementing digital lab transformation initiatives. The discussions aimed to question some paradigms and encourage the shift from an application-centric mindset to a digital one,” comments Isabel Muñoz-Willery, Event Director at Paperless Lab Academy®

Free Registration now open

Join the discussions!

L'articolo Press Release: PLA® Conference 2025 EUROPE proviene da NL42 | Paperless Lab Academy®.

Discussions at the 11th edition of the Paperless Lab Academy® Conference Europe

The PLA® Conference is pleased to announce its 11th European edition, which will take place on 12 and 13 March 2024 in the city of Milan, Italy, at the Hotel Meliá Milano.

The conference is the place to be for anyone thinking of implementing, consolidating, integrating, simplifying digital processes in their labs, and improving data-driven decisions. Data, Processes, People, Technology, and Compliance are the backbone of the program of each edition.

A two-day event that includes:

– Plenary talks and panel discussions

from industry leaders who share their visions and use cases, explain their strategies for tackling a specific project and share their lessons learnt along the way.

– Product deep dive workshops

where our sponsors present their latest solutions and their subject matter experts share their experience and knowledge on specific topics.

– Networking in the Exhibition Hall

a true showcase with high-quality networking opportunities to gather in-depth information with colleagues, speakers, and vendors.

– Deep Dive Workshops

to deepen knowledge on specific topics.

A unique opportunity that is only possible with the support of the PLA® partners. More than 60 solution and service providers sponsoring all editions around the globe.

The project was launched in Europe in 2012 with the aim of creating a platform for discussion that ensures a collaborative atmosphere between suppliers and visitors. The PLA conference program is intended for managers and executives from R&D, QC, OpEx, IT and QA departments in the bio/pharma, cosmetics, biotechnology, service labs, chemicals, consumer goods, food and beverage sectors.

In 2023, a long-standing project that had unfortunately been delayed by the pandemic was finally realised. The PLA® conferences are now present in Europe, India, and the United States. The 2023 editions proved to be strong and robust. The programs addressed the challenges of successfully implementing digital lab transformation initiatives. The discussions aimed to question some paradigms and encourage the shift from an application-centric mindset to a digital one,” comments Isabel Muñoz-Willery, Event Director at Paperless Lab Academy®

In 2024, the PLA® Conferences return with their 11th European edition, their 5th in India and their second in the USA.

Join the discussions!

L'articolo Press Release: PLA® Conference 2024 EUROPE proviene da NL42 | Paperless Lab Academy®.

If the initial decisions were focused on implementing solutions to gain efficiency and shorten time to market, it is recommended to approach such digital transformation projects with clear understanding of the highlighted points below, avoiding frustrations and low return on investment.

Paperless laboratory – business process reengineering

A digital transformation project is the greatest opportunity ever to review processes and look for improvement. The process reengineering phase, far before selecting any informatics tool, is the most relevant moment that will make the difference.

The goal of the digital transformation is to convert laboratory processes and data management activities from paper to computerized systems. Processes should be then reviewed, modified and designed to clearly define how the entire data life cycle will be covered. In the laboratories, the data life cycle goes from the request of analysis to the emission of the certificate of analysis, yet storage and archiving is the very final step. The digitalisation process aims at generating a series of documents that put the laboratory in the position to manage requests and samples and to perform the required tasks.

A crucial step is to analyse the systems that are already part of the process, in order to understand if they are in line with the company requirements, the business needs, the corporate IT strategy or if they need to be upgraded or replaced. From there, processes and systems are mapped to visualize the flow of the data along its life cycle. This goes from the collection of raw data and metadata, management of the data, decision making and archiving.  The best solution could be composed of a unique informatic tool or a combination of systems, from a unique vendor or not whenever those systems can easily be integrated

Paperless laboratory – selection process

The selection of the systems that are required to cover the processes and which are fitting with the IT strategy is a key part of the implementation project. By selecting the informatics tool that suits their needs and the provider that commits for a trustable long-term relationship, the laboratory is creating the conditions for a successful implementation with a constant eye to the four major success factors: cost, time, quality and people.

The project team and scope should be clearly defined, the user requirements properly articulated, the project costs and time estimated and communicated to the company’s management.

In a whole digital transformation project, these 5 steps are the recommended ones when you have reached the moment to seek for the right solution.

If you opt for some consultancy support, these are the steps you should expect us to take you through for selecting your laboratory data management system. It is recommended to involve external resources which may help to design the selection in the most transparent way, adding on market knowledge which is critical to identify the potential vendors for each system.

These have been described in a previous article: “Five steps in the selection of a LIMS”

Paperless laboratory – benefits and costs

The proper implementation of a paperless lab would generate a significant number of benefits for the laboratory itself and for the company. However, it is also important to estimate the costs of the project.

Benefits:

• Time related benefits: the use of a paperless process reduces significantly the time required to complete the entire process. From 30 to 40% of man hours’ time is estimated be saved for each process
• Cost related benefits: the paperless processes are reducing the costs of maintaining paper-based process, such as archives.
• Quality related benefits: these benefits are related to the reduction of failures during the execution of the processes, such as manual transcriptions

Costs:

• Initial costs – related to the preparation phases of the project, including the selection process
• Implementation costs – the overall cost of products and services required to implement the system(s)
• Data migration costs – the costs related to the move of data from other systems already in use in the laboratory
• Validation costs – the costs to validate the systems
• Maintenance costs – typically an annual fee requested by the vendor
• Follow-up costs – the costs required to maintain the system updated according to the changes in business requirements, laboratory processes, etc

Paperless laboratory – system Implementation

Once the stage has been set, it is time for implementing the system. To guarantee a flawless process, formal project management initiatives should be considered during the execution of the activities. The level of project management skills required, may vary according to the complexity of the implementation. They would allow to drive the project to a successful completion according to the defined costs, time and quality. Moreover, proper communication should be established to ensure that the company management and all the stakeholders are informed about the project status.

Looking for some support on your selection process? Contact us and discover how we can help you.

L'articolo Setting the stage for a paperless laboratory proviene da NL42 | Paperless Lab Academy®.

5 steps to select your data management solution

In this article, we start with the assumption that you have walked your way to define your best fit to purpose solution by first mapping your processes, identifying your gaps and defining your “must have” requirements.

In a whole digital transformation project, these 5 steps are the recommended ones when you have reached the moment to seek for the right solution.

If you opt for some consultancy support, these are the steps you should expect us to take you through for selecting your laboratory data management system.

Step 1 in the selection of a LIMS: User Requirements Specification

Since the knowledge on available solutions in the market might sometimes be limited, it is highly recommended not to assume anything and never limit ourselves in putting down the so called “wish-list”. Even though it is sometimes easier to understand what you would not like to have rather that what you´d like to have, the user requirements document should collect all aspects that you´d like to see in the product but also the key points you need the company provider to fulfill adequately in order to trust on a long term B2B relationship.

The goals of this document are from one hand to define in the most accurate way what the system should do to satisfy the business and technical needs but also to describe the requirements for a satisfactory implementation.

The URS (User Requirement Specification) sets the scope of the project, provides references of the international, national and internal regulations that govern your company (i.e. industry, customers, auditors), sets the major benefits expected after the implementation of the selected solution and lists a set of categorized requirements. Requirements categories should include but not limited to:

• System and capacity requirements
• Corporate requirements
• Regulatory requirements
• Workflow requirements
•  Interface requirements
•  IT Support requirements

Step 2 in the selection of a LIMS: Request for Information

Once the URS are agreed amongst the team and stakeholders, it is time to reach out and call for an RFI (Request for Information). The RFI usually presents to the candidates the project scope, objectives and requirements categories along with the rules and expected timing of the selection process. The RFI goal is to perform an initial market assessment to identify the products and companies that would be able to deliver a satisfactory solution. As such we do align a set of 30 questions about the company and 50 about the product. The answers are evaluated and rated while questions are weighted in relation with their impact on the customer business activities and project goals.

At this stage we do realize a very open search that could end in having 30 or more companies applying to the RFI.  Even though the outcome is quite exhaustive, this first summary is very much appreciated as it gives a good comprehension of the market offering. As mentioned in the previous article:

“It is always a strong surprise for us to realize how little is known about the lab informatics industry by the potential buyers. Some providers considered as global market leaders are not even named in selection processes because their local presence is limited and their marketing strategy doesn´t reach them.”

From this first step, at least 3 solutions should be identified to move ahead in the selection process.

Step 3 in the selection of a LIMS: Request for Proposal

The final candidates selected from the RFI are then contacted to fulfill the Request for Proposal. The goal of the RFP is to receive a firm commitment from the vendors on the financial impact of the project and a clear definition on how the solution would be implemented. Further details are required from previous items mentioned in the RFI to gain granularity on technical aspects and also clear understanding of the level of commitment from the vendors with their project plan proposal. The information facilitated in the RFP should provide the basis of the final contractual agreement.

Step 4 in the selection of a LIMS: Demo Script

Meanwhile a technical presentation is arranged allowing the team to touch the solution and meet the vendor company. Since 3 to 4 demonstration sessions have to be planned in a reasonably short time frame, a demo script is highly recommended for the following benefits:

• Limit the vendor demo to the items of customer interest
• Concentrate the attention of the attendees to the listed items
• Facilitate a methodology to record if and how items have been demonstrated, seen and understood
• Facilitate a methodology to rate every item

The goal of a demo script is to remove, as much as possible, the emotional part of the technical presentations. By using a demo script, the different solutions are evaluated using the same principles.

Step 5 in the selection of a LIMS: negotiating and closing the contract

The goal of this last step is to sign a contract with the selected candidate that removes the typical ambiguities of the project implementation. The scope should be clearly defined, the costs and timing should be clearly stated in the contractual agreement. This is achieved by using the information provided by the vendor in the previous phases of the selection process and incorporate them into the contract. How product licenses are deployed and how implementation services are delivered should be mutually agreed. Payments should be clearly linked to project deliverables

Fact is that the benefits of running thought these steps are multiple:

• Market search is performed after that project scope and user requirements are clearly stated
• Vendors are evaluated based on their ability to support the customer, rather than their marketing efforts
• Vendors’ responses are measured using a unique approach
• Technical presentations are realized using the same approach
• The contract is signed largely reducing the ambiguities

Looking for some support on your selection process? Contact us and discover how we can help you.

L'articolo Selection Process II: 5 steps in the selection of a LIMS proviene da NL42 | Paperless Lab Academy®.

Readiness: key differentiator for the process of selecting a laboratory data management system

When approaching the selection process of the right laboratory data management system, in order to make this step a positive experience, the readiness comes as a result of your previous homework: team members’ commitment, stakeholders’ support, process mapping and clear requirements including the business, users and technical ones.

Avoid Acronyms when looking for your best fit to purpose laboratory data management system

Despite the title of this article, we’re very reluctant to use acronyms when mapping the processes and defining the user requirements. Yet most of the times customers have in mind to look for a named system, let’s say a LIMS, by default. Regardless we work in an R&D or a QC laboratory, when deepening attentively, listening to the business goals, identifying the “must have” and “nice to have”, we identify requirements that are above and beyond an acronym.

We often end up with a wish list that might bring you to think about a bit of ELN and a bit of LIMS, maybe a LES, and a bit of CDS without forgetting the critical interactions with the instruments, the corporate ERP and potentially with the MES of the production line.

This is ground for confusion, for you and the solution provider.

The choice of a “LIMS”: an important investment requires an accurate selection process

My partner, Roberto Castelnovo is used to provocatively say:

We visit three shops or more to purchase a pair of shoes. We spend months or even years before choosing a new house. While It takes only one good demo to purchase a software!.

The purchasing for a pair of shoes is based on somehow precise criteria: comfortable, nice look and feel, right color, fit for purpose running or gala dinner, according to the season, the climate where we live… Some of these criteria are measurable, hard to buy a shoe which is not our size, yet testing is critical as sizing happen not to be so standard. Other criteria are less measurable or not at all: Do I like how I look with them? The lifecycle of a pair of running shoes is just few months and the cost is relatively limited.

Certainly, more complex but the same process is followed when selecting a house: location, right number of bedrooms, etc. As it is related to a purchase that involves a significant amount of money, most of us is implementing, consciously or unconsciously, a selection process which drives to a couple of options and finally the decision. The lifecycle of a house is definitely longer than a pair of shoes and sometime it lasts our entire life. The cost involved is large and it is always an important decision.

Both processes sound logical, reasonable and expected for most of our purchasing actions.

Reality is that, when it comes to software, companies are too often purchasing without following the same logic. The lifecycle of such data management systems is long, extremely long… Some software products developed more than twenty years ago are still in use nowadays. The cost involved is large or very large when considering the internal costs of the implementation, the validation and the maintenance.

Even worse, too often we encounter companies that have purchased a laboratory data management system a couple of times in less than ten years. The reasons are typically that the software does not fit for the purpose, the company producing the software does not support the customers anymore, the technology behind the system is obsolete.

The conclusion: the investment is similar to a house; the process is similar to a pair of shoes or even less accurate. Why?

In the end, our experience tells us that the purchasing process is not a simple standard operation procedure to go through and involves in large percentage emotional responses to the interaction with the providers. Software products are intangible hence difficult to evaluate, vendors are able to present the product in such a way that it “appears as suitable” to support the customer needs.

Hence…How to handle the process to ensure that risks are minimized and the software fits with the expectations?

Our large experience working in commercial companies has allowed us to develop a methodology that permits to reach, with the lowest level of risks, the critical moment of signing the contract.

The human part of my laboratory data management system

Selecting a system in any country within Europe, even more in non-English speaking countries, brings a language parameter that sometime comes as highest requirement in the whole process. Proximity of the vendor and implementers, first line support in local language and local time working hours are critical for the final users and the IT business partners to feel comfortable in the long-term partnership with the vendor. The European complexity creates difficulties to international providers to get close to the market they want to address. It is always a strong surprise for us to realize how little is known about the lab informatics industry by the potential buyers. Some providers, considered as global market leaders are not even named in selection processes because their local presence is limited and their marketing strategy doesn’t reach them.

Lowering the barriers for international lab solutions providers to approach the European markets

As organizers of the Paperless Lab Academy, we are glad to receive, every year, more than twenty lab informatics providers sponsoring the event. Some providers are well-known and loyal partners of this initiative since the beginning yet we are proud to welcome new comers every year.

Young European companies bring innovative solutions, specific answers to key data management processes. They are eager to bring quality in their offering and they desire to do it right with their customers whom respond positively to their business model.

Others, international companies well implemented in the States, India, Canada or Australia, strong experience and skilled technical people, come to investigate the potential of the European market to position their solutions.

Despite the language barrier, the European lab informatics market offering has never been so promising. Just going to the big shop around the corner is not anymore, the only option for your laboratory, if you´re looking for the implementation of a solution lasting for several years, meeting your today and future business goals and providing you the flexibility to grow and the ability to compete.

L'articolo Selection process – How to select a LIMS proviene da NL42 | Paperless Lab Academy®.